The basic education department has invited students who failed the May/June senior certificate (SC) exams to register for an opportunity to rewrite.

"Minister Angie Motshekga has approved that senior certificate (SC) candidates, who wrote the June 2019 examination and failed, as well as those who were absent with a valid reason, be allowed to write the November 2019 examinations," said department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga.

Valid reasons include death in the immediate family of a candidate, illness of a candidate and any other circumstances beyond the candidate's control.

Mhlanga emphasised that the invitation was open only to senior certificate candidates and not those who wrote national senior certificate (NSC) exams.

Senior certificate

The senior certificate allows candidates to obtain university endorsement. In the case of the NSC exam, candidates can also qualify for admission to bachelor, diploma or higher certificate programmes at higher education institutions.

The department said candidates who did not turn up to write exams without a valid reason would not be allowed to write.

Eligible candidates can register to write the exams by logging on to the DBE website.

Online registration will only be available from September 4, 2019, at 08:00 and will close at 00:00 on September 11, 2019.

Online, manual registration

"The online system will only allow candidates to register for subjects that they wrote and failed or [if they] were absent.

"Hence, candidates will not be allowed to register for subjects they did not write in June 2019 or for any subject for which they achieved more than 30% or 40% in the case of home language," said Mhlanga.

Manual registrations at circuit, district or provincial offices opened on Monday, August 19, and were expected to close on September 4, 2019, at 16:00.

"In order to register both online and manual, candidates must provide an email address at which they can be contacted and a cellphone number, so that further details regarding the examination can be communicated via email or cellphone," said Mhlanga.